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We know about scalping. We know it’s bad. We know that it’s just too much trouble and too much cost to go see a nationally touring act. I won’t talk about why, I did that here. Ok, will sum up super quick. 90% of concert tickets NEVER go onsale. AND… they are long gone BEFORE the public onsale happens. That last 10% is gotten not by fans but by computer programs that resourceful scalpers use. They can ping Ticketbastard 100 a minute, whereas your slow dialing ass can do it once.

Let’s instead look at if it can be fought, and is anyone doing anything about it.

First… can it be fought? Yes, but only by sucky and complicated means that are NOT consumer friendly. To stop scalping, you can

Require the ID or credit card of the credit card that bought the ticket. This is essentially making an entire concert will call. This means where you used to have 5 ticket takers… JUST taking tickets… you could move 20,000 people into an arena. Now imagine if EVERY one of those tickets has to be verified with an ID. Imagine standing in line behind 10 drunk women fumbling through their purses looking for their ID as you hear the opening band start up. In many venues, this IS being done. In fact, with an AXS show… it is the upside down world. Instead of going to a show and they take your ticket… you show up with NO ticket… and they print your ticket at the door.

Print people’s names on the ticket. No one is doing this, and (seriously) I came up with this idea myself. I could be done SO goddamn easily. This way, TM could justify their ‘convenience’ charge.

Either one of these solutions suffers because it means you can’t give away or sell tickets. Or buy them as a gift for a friend. Which one do I prefer, knowing everything I know? Neither. Shoot the scalpers in the fucking head. Same with TM, for sanctioning and embracing, and encouraging scalpers with their own scalper site ‘Ticketsnow.com’

What is the alternative? Sadly, it is simple. Stop going to concerts. Stop patronizing scalpers. Like the drug trade, this is kinda all our fault. As long as some asshole is willing to pay $4,000 to see Adele… we ALL have to pay that. Note, if I could afford that… I would pay it. Adele is bitchin, and likely won’t tour again for a LONG time. That is not faint praise, the last 4 concerts I went to… 3 of them were Iron Maiden.

Why aren’t the artists and managers and all that fighting for us? Why would they? As long as tickets are being sold, they are good. It is likely better for their bottom line when ALL tickets sell out… even if a venue is only half full during the show. Some artists are fighting back, though. Here are their badass and commendable ideas and fights. What is cool and interesting is every one of these bands took a different tact. Spoiler alert… none have been effective –

So… let’s look at the good news and good dudes/dudettes who are fighting the good fight

Pearl Jam – back in the early 90s, they wanted to keep ticket prices at $10. Not just the face value… but the total cost at the end of the day after fees and such. Ticketmaster laughed, and they have a monopoly on the venues due to contracts. So, PJ filed a DOJ anti trust suit, and then testified in front of fucking Congress. The balls on those kids. Even today, 20 years later, no band has taken such extreme measures. Sadly, the effort fell flat. There was supposed to be a whole slew of A-listers to show up and support them. Their record companies and various suits warned the artists not to piss of TM… with the monopoly and all. So… where folks like Garth Brooks pledged to show up… NO OTHER BANDS showed up. So, you just had 5 long hair upstarts bitching at ‘the man’. It was dismissed, sadly.

SO… Pearl Jam said ‘fine, we’ll just sell our own tickets to our own fans… and bypass TM’. Yeah, that SUPER didn’t work. TM ended up writing their own legislation that fan clubs can’t have more than 10% of a venues tickets… AND said all fan clubs have to charge at least $15.

NSync – did I spell that right? Well, who cares? You know them as a soulless boy band, and launching pad for Justin Timberlake. Well, they care, too. They did a tour during their heyday, and found out that NONE of their floor seats ever went on sale to the public. It’s not just a dick move. Knowing what we know now, not even a big deal. BUT… they also realized they would be playing for, and facing, NOT fans. It would be suits, and the families of suits, and radio station suits, and super rich people. They blew a gasket and busted the whole thing wide open and told everyone. Again, 20 years ago, this was a BALLSY move. A band like Pearl Jam knew they could keep playing. NSync, though, was a corporate creation. For them to stand up to the industry that incubated them was just very cool and strong.

Prince – Prince wanted to play small clubs again. There were 2 problems with that: they would make a tenth of the money he could make playing mega arenas. In fact, let’s stop here and run the numbers. He played the Ogden theater, a cool little club of 1200. Let’s say tickets are $100. His gross, then, is 120K. Great take for one night’s work, right? Normally, someone of his status would play the ____ center. You know, the venue where your basketball and hockey team plays. Ours is called the Pepsi Center, and it holds 20,000. Let’s say those tickets are also $100 each. If he plays this venue, just a few blocks away, he grosses 2 million.

but… Prince wants to play clubs. How does he do this and make his nut. What can he do? He prices the tickets are fair market value. Those Ogden show tickets were $250 each. Am I outraged? No! I am turned on! I LOVE what Prince did, and here is why – it was incredibly innovative! See, Prince could have charged $100. Thing is, NO fan would get those tickets. They would get gobbled up by presales and scalpers. THEN… those scalpers would have charged (and easily got) $250 a ticket. If people are willing to pay $250 to see Prince in a club (instead of a soulless mega Arena)… shouldn’t that money go to Prince? Yes it should. PLUS &gt; at that price point it squeezes out the scalpers. The scalpers would have to buy each ticket for $250, and sell it for what? $300? Not worth their trouble. Prince is great, because he is one of 2 people in ALL of rock and truly do (or… did) only what they believe in. The other is Neil Young.

String Cheese Incident – also not amused by the monopoly and mark ups. Using a loophole where tickets could be bought for face value at the venue… String Cheese went to the venue and bought up ALL the tickets. Then… sold them to their fans at face value. Once again, the balls on these guys. They also fought a couple long and ugly court battles with TM over all their bullshit. These dudes, like everyone on this list… are heroes! More on that here, and here, and here. Just in case it is lost on you what they did, let’s let the band explain themselves.

Fucking heroes! Don’t worry, TM sued them, too. It’s a great story and an interesting read. Bonus evil TM fun? Once they finished their total monopoly by merging with Live Nation, TM closed that loophole about the box office. It is now MORE expensive to drive to the venue and buy tickets there (vs over the phone). I experienced this personally, and wrote about it here.

Kid Rock – tried something fun and innovative. He did a shed tour (its’ the half seating and half lawn venue your city has) and he capped the ticket price at $20. AFTER FEES. Let me demonstrate how impressive that is. About 10 years ago, Motley Crue did a shed tour, and tickets were only $5. Before fees. After fees? $25 each. You may see $25 being a great and fair price to see Motley Crue. You would be Correct. Until… you see that 75% of that goes to TM. $20 of the $25 is all service fees. So, when Kid Rock caps the very end cost at $25… everyone has to take less. Kid Rock explained it as “I can afford it, I am rich. If no one shows up, I can take the loss.” What kind of loss, you wonder? He awesomely explained that it costs $100K for him to show up. Keep in mind, this is cost for salaries of bus drivers and cooks and roadies and hookers. I know Kid Rock takes a ton of shit for being a Trump flunkie, and he should. However, it doesn’t mean he isn’t a good dude. This stunt proved it.

This method of cost control is a very close cousin of what Pearl Jam was trying. What did Kid Rock do different that he was able to do it, where Pearl Jam could not? He (Kid Rock) worked with TM, instead of against them. Every artist has been working against TM for so long (and for good reason)… that no one had tried to work with them. Oh, and the real short answer of how this business model works? Kid Rock gets a cut of the beers sales (which he also capped at $5). Even though his politics are wack, I still very much enjoy ‘Devil without a Cause’. I feel the same way about Uncle Ted. Total psycho dickweed, politically… but it’s tough to think of a cooler song than ‘Stranglehold’. Again, I’ll let Mr Rock (nee Bobby Ritchie) explain himself

See, this is what is great about Kid Rock, and why I can’t hate him. Plenty of folks talk about protecting the vaunted ‘blue collar worker and poor suffering family’… but Kid Rock actually did something. Name someone else who has? Trick question, the answer is no one.

Adele – wanted fans to see her show. And only fans. Here is the unique approach she did – no ‘holdback’ tickets. This means she put every single ticket on sale for every show. No tickets were held back for family, friends, promoters, fan clubs, record companies, radio stations. How is this a big deal? I mention in the article I referenced at the very top that 90% of tickets now to go ‘holdbacks’. What that means, specifically, is this: Billy Bob is going to play Red Rocks this summer. It holds 10,000 seats. Tickets go on sale Dec 15th, 2017. When that onsale happens, and you log in to get tickets, 90% are already gone. Only 1,000 tickets will actually go onsale. When that happens, you won’t even see those 1,000 tickets. Computer programs used by resourceful scalpers get those tickets.

Sadly, industry folks say Adele’s most excellent intentions had little effect. Her tickets still showed up instantly on the ‘secondary’ legal scalper sites. It’s ok, though, at least she tried something no one else has. Fucking Hero! If you don’t like Adele, as a person, you don’t like puppies! She drinks and curses and belches and laughs… all in concert. She is good people!

Eric Church – several artists have canceled tickets they knew were scalped. Most famously, the Boss. Springsteen has canceled blocks of tickets, and encouraged use of paperless tickets (where you have to show your ID at the door). Church, though, went nuts. He just canceled 25K tickets for his tour. Here is why that is ‘balls’; those 25K tickets were guaranteed money that he had in pocket. Assuming tickets were $85 each, he walked away from 2.1 million dollars. I gotta be honest, I have no idea who he is, and I don’t dig new county that isn’t Chris Stapleton. But, whoever the hell this guy is… he is a hero.

That is all for now, I shall keep you posted on the good fight as it occurs. If you know of other artists taking similar initiatives, please drop me a line. My email is ‘I am correct at gmail dot com’ (all smooshed together, no spaces)

If you know me, you know I LOVE football. If you know me, I HATE the NFL corporation. Why? Well, today they gave me a perfectly good example as to why Roger Goodell is the devil.

It looks like the NFL is broke, and we ALL need to help out. I mean, why else would all of the following befall these saints?

You may know that the NFL hid concussions and those repercussions for years, resulting in many ex-players dead. You may know they got sued for anti-trust in their marketing strategies. You may know they charged New Jersey residents $25,000 just for rights to buy season tickets in the new stadium. If you paid the $25,000, that didn’t actually buy you a single season ticket. You may know that the NFL won’t allow a local game to be broadcast unless the stadium is sold out beforehand.

You may know they got sued by cheerleaders for unfair labor practices. They lost that case, and it resulted in them (the NFL) having to pay minimum wage to the cheerleaders. Plus, there was the strike two years ago. The NFL is broke people, goddamnit why can’t you see that? Why else would they treat consumers and players like this?

You may know that, though they made 8 BILLION last year, they do not pay a penny of taxes. They are listed, quite amusingly, as a 501C charity. Like your local dog shelter. Then, this report from Forbes says the average NFL team is worth 1.3 BILLION. Ok, I can’t wrap my head around a figure like that. Lemme grab my trusty calculator and put in 1.3 BILLION times 32 teams. It’s 32, right? Ok, and the answer on my calculator says ‘holy fuck that is a lot of money, bro’ and then it just exploded like mission impossible mission giver thingy.

That isn’t why I write today. That stuff is all in the past. Today, I learned that the NFL wants bands to pay them to play the superbowl. Yes, the NFL wants to charge bands to play the superbowl. The NFL is soliciting Katy Perry and Coldplay to ‘pay to play’. The way the NFL sees it, they are giving you a boost in your career. You owe them. If it weren’t for the NFL, you wouldn’t have even heard of these bands. Oh wait, you already know who they are? They are already successful? Well, did they make 8 Billion last year? Exactly.

Yes, chilly sounds appropriate. The NFL made 8 BILLION last year, they will charge a million and a half during the game to run a commercial… and they are not paying a penny in taxes. Boo fucking hoo. This is like C Montgomery Burns asking you for a fiver. They made 8 Billion, Goodell was paid 32 million last year, and they are being sued just to provide minimum wage? They don’t pay a penny in taxes? Oh yeah, it’s quite the opposite. US taxpayers bought all their stadiums.

It is such a painful dichotomy to love football and hate the NFL so much. It’s similar to my relationship with Ticketbastard and live rock music. I am so upset with Ticketbastard charging 150% service fees that I don’t even go to national concerts anymore. Einstein said something to the effect of ‘evil succeeds when good men to do nothing’. So, I don’t give them money… either of them. Neither should you. That is, until they get together with Ticketbastard to block out the sun.

* full disclosure, I did just buy a Manning Broncos jersey last year, but it was pirated. 🙂 Can’t afford the $150 it costs to buy a proper licensed one. Wanna make a difference? Sign this!

Nearly 20 years ago, Pearl Jam took on ticket prices. They wanted to keep tickets to their shows at the $10 price point. Not before fees, but for it to cost $10 total out the door*. This was impossible because of service fees from ticket brokers. Specifically, their battle was with Ticketmaster.

Ticketmaster would not negotiate the fees, so the band sought an alternative. They found out that there was none. So, they took their fight against the Ticketmaster monopoly to Congress. Many bands supported Pearl Jam’s battle, and vowed to be there to support them. Then, no one showed. Are you going to testify against John Gotti? Not if you want to live.

Since then, no one has tried to ‘climb the fence’ to get ticket prices down. They all talk about it, but no one makes that walk to the fence.

Allow me to explain the expression ‘climb the fence’. There is a parable about a group of apes in captivity. There was a fence, and the top was electrified so they could not escape. They did not know about the electricity initially. One day, an ape decided he wanted out. So, he climbed the fence and was electrocuted to death when he reached the top. After that day, anytime anyone came near that fence, the other apes would attack them… so protect them.

This went on for years, until all of the original apes had been replaced by a newer generation. From learning from the elders, the new apes learned quickly to never go near the fence. In time, everyone knew to never go near the fence, even though they had no idea why. The electrocution had happened generations earlier. Basically, you didn’t need to know why the fence was so bad, you just knew to never go near it.

Well, Pearl Jam climbed that fence and got electrocuted. The Justice Department chucked their lawsuit out, and that was a tragedy. Since then, no one has gone near the fence.

20 years later, Kid Rock is climbing that fence. Even better, he has a chance of making it out. Kid Rock is on tour this summer, and only charging $20 for tickets. All seats, $20 out the door. On top of that, he is capping beer prices at all venues at $4. How does he do it? Well, first off, he is willing to lose money for the principle of it. I’ll let Kid Rock explain it, because he does it so well.

This is great. God bless Kid Rock for offering to climb the fence for all of us. I bought two tickets to his Denver show. I may not even make it because of work. Still, it is absolutely worth $40 for me to support this business model. I want the show to sell out and do ridiculously well, so other musicians might be empowered to one day climb the fence themselves. See, Ticketmaster fees are now between 100 to 150% of face value on tickets. Motley Crue and Creed lawn seats were $5 each across the country. Those seats after fees were $25.

You may say “$25 is a deal to go see Motley Crue”. I say “that is a 200% service fee. What the fuck is that about? If I am going to pay $25 to see Motley, that should go to the band.

This, of course, is not why I write. This is also not why I use the apes climbing the fence metaphor. Nope. The reason I write is how people have reacted to this. Kid Rock is charging a tenth of what other national bands charge. He is a hero of the proletariat, right? No. This is what people have been saying online:

people don’t have a job and are struggling to eat, and keep a roof over thier head. and he’s talking about concert ticket prices. a real republican isn’t he? like concert ticket pricing is going to change people lives. what a jerk!**

What the fuck, right? What is this guy’s problem? I can only surmise he has been beaten back from that fence so many times that he no longer questions why, like all the other apes of his generation. So, thank you Kid Rock for trying again to climb the fence. I am down here rooting for you, I promise. If you go all Icarus on us, though, can I have your hat?

* last time I saw Pearl Jam, and this was ten years ago, tickets were $100 for just ok seats. Shows you how far away the business has gotten

** that is verbatim, I left his typos and crappy in because he is an asshole. Stay in school, kids!

Hello friends. Had to share a little update with you about fraud and anti trust over at Live Nation/Ticketmaster. You may note they recently merged, and you can guess how I feel about that.

It gets worse. It is a bait and switch operation. It is fraud, and my next step will be to the DOJ.

Here is why I want them fucking dead. First off, TM/LN advertised $18 lawn seats for Denver outdoor shed ‘Fiddler’s Green’. Every city has one. So, I went to get Iron Maiden tickets online. Tickets were $32 after fees… each. See, the face value for my $18 lawn ticket was actually $23.25 > fuckers!

So, we went down to the box office to get the tickets in person. Historically speaking, going to the box office meant you bypassed service fees. Not anymore. Since the merger, it is actually MORE expensive to pick them up at the box office. Fucking great, nice service dipships. I can’t believe you have the balls to call any of this ‘convenience’. So, I got all riled up and went online and got my tickets. I am not going to miss Maiden, but shit like this is why I stopped going to concerts. I wrote about it here, and here. $18 lawn ticket cost out the door was $32. Damn near a 100% mark up, for my convenience.

whatever. Fuck them in the goat ass. Then, a few days ago TM/LN announced ‘No Service Fee June‘. My wife told me about it, and I knew immediately it was a crock of criminal shit. So, I started digging. I went to look up tickets for that exact same Maiden show. The web page proudly announced ‘No Service Fee June’. So, were lawn seats $18? Nope. Were they $23.25? Nope, they are $31. So, the ticket price went down one dollar, and they have the nutsack to declare on same said page:

So, they doubled the price of the ticket, and then dropped the service fees. What a bunch of assholes. Now they are riding high on a public wave of benevolence. Well, I knew them too well to play fair, and now you do too.

1. In the rock business, for the longest time, “Floyd” ruled. Who rules now?

to the scale of Floyd or Zeppelin? I don’t think that exists right now. The closest would be Springsteen or U2. Both are amazing live. In fact, I have seen almost all of those bands live. All other three, and for the Zepp, I did see Page and Plant live. So, that mostly counts. It’s tough to be a live music fan, the big shows are hundreds of bucks each, and Ticketbastard now charges 100% fees. So, the business of rock is suffering.

3. Do any current devices use the 9 volt? Where does the juice come from?

being a guitarist, I have zillions. about five petals, and my wireless rig. It sucks, 9 volts are incredibly expensive. About $5 each, and they don’t last long. While all my stuff at home and in the truck is rechargeable, that won’t work for stage gear. They drain too quick. Luckily, I bought this great product this week that powers all my pedals off one power line.

When Ticketmaster and Live Nation merged, they promised to use economies of scale to serve the customer base. This is what the asshat of a CEO, Barry Diller, said about service fees and their impact on ticket prices.

Barry Diller is an asshat, and the reason why Pearl Jam took these crooks to Congress years ago. Ticketmaster has a HUGE impact on ticket prices. A lawn ticket is $18.50 before Ticketmaster, $36 after. That is a pretty big impact. Double the price. I can’t conceivably think of a bigger impact that doubling the goddamn price.

Indeed, Ticketmaster does not set prices. However, their impact is felt. Here are some examples of the service fees, which now stretch to well over 100%. I will only reference Denver ticketing experiences, because I am in Denver. So, these are personal experiences with , and actual figures. Last summer, Ticketmaster sold tickets to Motley Crue’s big tour. They were playing a ‘shed’, which every big city has. It’s outdoors: half seating and half lawn. Ticketmaster and the venue (Fiddler’s Green) were offering $10 lawn seats. That is a crazy good deal.

Problem is, the tickets actually cost $25 each after fees. Yes. That is a 150% service fee mark up. “Convenience” indeed. I went this weekend to buy Iron Maiden tix (for the same venue). Those lawn seats were $18 each face value. Online, those $18 tickets were $32 each. So, I decided to wait and drive to the venue and buy the tickets directly from the venue box office. It used to be that these tickets didn’t have fees. Wrong. Since the merger with Live Nation, it now costs MORE to buy tickets directly at the box office. The $18 tickets cost $36 at the box office. That is a 100% service fee.

Where the hell are the tea party folks on this? Ticketmaster is a monopoly. I can not buy tickets through any other avenue, I have tried. They are more expensive at the theatre, and the band’s website directs me to Ticketmaster as well. Could you imagine if you went to Burger King and you ordered the #1 combo? It says $4.99. Now, imagine if they told you that would be $10. You would laugh and tell them to kiss your backside. Guess what, imagine there is no competition. The only restaurant that is open is Burger King and they charge a 100% convenience fee for heating and distributing your burger to you.

Now that Ticketmaster and Live Nation have merged, all consumer choices are out the window. I just want every consumer out there to know what is happening. If you are going to a concert, expect service fees to be between 80 to 100%. I had also heard that Creed was selling $5 lawn seats to their shows, which were costing $30 after fees. However, I can’t substantiate this because Creed sucks. So, I would never buy a ticket for them. The ticket prices referenced above were done by me… this isn’t ‘friend of a friend’ data.

* Here is something funny. Right here at this site, two years ago, I was railing against 40% service fees. Read here. Read my prophetic words:

I was super correct on that one. Want to know what ‘every aspect of the business’ means? Google the term ‘360 deal’. Wait, I have done it for you. I have started a Facebook group to protest the fee escalation. I know it won’t do shit, but it we can get it up to a million or more, it might send a lesson to the greedy suits. Here is the name of the group, please join us, and forward it around. Stop Ticketmaster’s 100% service fees

Just kidding, can’t afford it. Turns out, few can. Know what it costs to get a pair of season tickets for a Giants game next year in the new stadium? $23,000

I can’t explain the math, but it’s valid. Read the source piece here. I don’t even go to single games. The actual tickets are generally about $80 for ok seats. Parking anywhere within half mile of the stadium is $40 to $60. Water is $4. Beers are $8. Plus, it is usually unpleasantly cold. In addition, the replays suck (and are few) on the jumbotron. The announcing is more of a distraction than compliment.

So, I watch the games at home. Have the high def TV (the cost of going to two games). Have free parking. I have an unobstructed view of every play. Plus, is always 72 degrees in my family room. I get to have the dogs (a big no no at the stadium since the incident last year) with me too. Beers are cheap as shit, like $1 a piece. To get a beer, I am not gone for 15 minutes. With the DVR, I make my own replays, and can pause the game to use the bathroom. I don’t worry about drinking and driving, nor do I worry about traffic.

This reminds me of the concert industry, which I have written about for years. While minimum wage went from $3.35 to $5.65, tickets to see the Police live went from $12 to $250. Some deal, eh? Even my beloved Pearl Jam f’d me. They went to Congress to fight Ticketmaster (rightfully so) so that they could sell their concert tickets for $10 each. This was back when minimum wage was $5.65

The last time I saw Pearl Jam, I got tickets straight from the band (skipping Ticketmaster). Know now much those seats were? $100 each. Know how much minimum wage was? $5.65

I don’t much to go to see concerts anymore for that reason. We can only vote with our dollars.

* post script. It’s about a week later when I read this. Personal something Licences for the Jets hit $65,000 at auction. That doesn’t include tickets, those are $700 each. For the Jets. The fucking Jets. Before the Favre euphoria, rememer that this team has always sucked. Their qb was 44 (Testeverde). The replaced him with the rookie youngblood, who is 39 (Favre).